Maxine Klein has a career in political theater that spans over half a century and includes more than 100 productions. She founded the Little Flaggs Theatre Company in Boston in the 1970s that produced provocative political theater and performed nationally and internationally in all kinds of venues from theaters to factories. She is an Obie Award winning director and playwright and the author of four theater books, including Theatre for the 98% (1978). Maxine has also collaborated, directed, and taught with La Mama e.t.c in NYC, Tyrone Guthrie and Howard Zinn as well as Twin Cities theater companies including Bedlam Theatre and Candid Theater. Her plays are currently performed around the country and include The Furies of Mother Jones and Ambush. She is outspoken for the rights of all people, especially those whose voices are rarely heard, and believes activism through the arts can change people’s lives. She is currently a professor of theater at MCTC. Maxine is quoted as saying, A work must show people struggling for change, not holding on to their little piles of power. Today's critical playwright is too often pressured, coerced, influenced, and seduced into supporting the status quo in form and content. The artist is shackled, the audience is robbed, the theater impoverished.

Patrick Scully is an openly gay man who started performing professionally in 1976 and began his independent performing artist career in 1980. From 1976-1980 he was a member and co-founder of Contactworks Dance Collective where he was involved in teaching, choreographing and performing. Patrick founded Patrick’s Cabaret in 1986 that is still open today in 2011. It is a queer friendly eclectic performing venue that mixes all styles of art and people. He exited as the cabaret’s Artistic Director in October of 2001, leaving behind a healthy performing art center committed to local artists. The New York Times’ included him as one of the “Best Performances of the Year” in 1992
for his performance at Dance Theater Workshop and in 1993 Skyway News inducted him into its arts registry for outstanding contributions to the Twin Cities Arts. His work as the director of Patrick’s Cabaret was recognized in 1996 for its vision with a Sally Award and today he is an independent performer and educator. Patrick believes in censure free art and that artists in all genres should not let organizations or funding dictate artistic expression.